(10-17-2012) Arcade controls

Last night I worked on the arcade control panel a little bit.  I cut a piece of metal to weld over the original control panel and got it to fit fairly well.  I'm not sure about placement of the controls, but at least the control panel has a fresh top to be welded on and allow for a smooth surface.  It's hard to figure out placement for 20 buttons, 2 joysticks, a trackball and a spinner control on one small area.

(10-13-2012) Just working on stuff...

Flash, Austin and I hung out in the shop and just worked on whatever seemed like it needed attention.  We worked on a kart motor for a while, started and checked out some cars (70 Chevy truck, a Porsche 914 and a 2000 Beetle), put new rear suspension on my GTi (it's much better!), reinstalled the interior in my GTi, worked on the MAME cabinet some (paint tests and some sanding of the cabinet) and played a bit of Virtua Racing as well.

(10-10-2012) MAME machine arrives

Here's a picture of the new cabinet for the MAME machine.  It's an old Zaxxon cabinet that's in pretty rough shape (left out in the rain for too long), but I think it will make a good cabinet for a MAME machine.  Some sanding and paint should do wonders for how it looks, maybe...

(10-09-2012) Two Player Virtua Racing Lives!! ...again...

It's alive, again!!  It's still a mess, but both sides of the machine are back up and running.  I will finish up the mounting of boards and cleaning up the interior of the machine and we will back to racing again.  Can't wait to play some head to head VR again.

...and later on that evening the Etchison boys came over to test it out.  Shannon got a bit over excited and did a brake check.  Or is that break check?  A little bit of cabinet work needs to be done, but this cabinet has always been rough and needed some help.  I hope Shannon doesn't feel bad about the problem, it could haven happened to anyone playing the game.

 

Also, Shannon said I could have this old empty arcade cabinet he has to turn into a MAME machine.  The PC is almost ready, but the cabinet and control panel will need lots of work.  Can't wait to get started on it.

(10-06-2012) Blondie repair

Blondie, my trusty old VW GTI, has been giving me some problems for the past month or so and today I think I finally figured it out.  Last weekend, I replaced the mass air flow sensor, but it didn't help.  The error code reported by the ECU was a P1136 - which says that the fuel mixture is too lean or some such thing.  I took all of the covers off the engine and spend a loooong time listening to the engine.  I could hear a vacuum leak somewhere, but for the longest time I couldn't find it.  Eventually I brushed the broken hose with my fingers enough to change the sound and I was able to find it.  The hose was located on the underneath side of the intake manifold - a real bear to find, see and replace.  I replaced the hose and gave it a test fire, and it does seem to idle much better, but only time will tell if this really fixes the occasional stalling that she's been suffering.

(10-06-2012) Steam engine

Today Flash and I looked at this Hack A Day article and decided to give it a try.  The video is an example of our results.  We used a piece of a plastic ball point pen as a push rod to open the valve and it didn't last too long, but otherwise it works very well.  Not very efficient, but a whole lot of fun and easy to make.  We probably had it running in less than 30 minutes, and most of that time was hunting for adapters to connect the air hose to the engine.

(10-06-2012) Games!

The past week has been a lot of fun playing Viruta Racing with Jody when he comes over.  The only bad part is that it's a two-player cabinet and one of the sides died a while back.  This weekend I finally figured out what's "dead" (one of the three power supplies had died for that side) and ordered a new one to fix the second player.  I can't wait to get it operational and have some good head-to-head racing action again.

Also, I started working on a MAME cabinet and have an awesome configuration set up now using a piece of software called Hyperspin.  The PC that will be used in the cabinet has a fully functional MAME, Daphne, Sega Genesis and Atari 2600 install currently and hopefully I'll add a few more systems in the next week or so.  It's great and it will only get better once it's installed in the cabinet.

(08-10-2012) Quick Nick

Friday night we put some graphics on Nick's kart.  I hope he likes the way his kart turned out.

Saturday, I spent some time working on my GTI.  I put some new front seats in, fixed (I hope!) a coolant leak and just did some minor fixing all around on her.

(07-14-2012) Another kart

We did graphics for another racing kart a while back, but hadn't updated the site to show it.

(06-09-2012) Kustom Kemps Car Show in Eureka Springs

Went to the  Kustom Kemps car show in Eureka Springs today.  Amazing cars and cool people.  I only wish I had something to show.

(06-07-2012) Steve's Car

We finished up all the vinyl on Steve's car.  I wanted to get a picture of it before it leaves the shop tomorrow.

In other news:  Goose, my son, drove the '72 Chevy around in the field, but the gas in it is too old.  We have to siphon out the old and put in some fresh gas.  He had fun driving an automatic for a change, but he needs more practice with the manual transmission.

(06-01-2012) Vinyl, vinyl and more vinyl...

 Allen's kart: Junkyard John (done)

Steve's modified (in progress)

Flash and I had a long busy day doing vinyl graphics for some friends.  First we tackled Allen's new kart, he made for his son John.  I think he made some good choices for color and style and I think the vinyl turned out fairly well.  Once we finished it up, we started on Steve's modified laying out the stripes on the side and doing art for the numbers and advertisements.  Still a lot of work to do on this car, but it's starting to take shape.

In other news, the Dual Virtua Racing cabinet has a problem again.  I've ordered parts to bring it back to life, but this time I'm going to rework all of the fans and make sure it has more than adequate cooling before I let it go back into service.  It will probably sound like a hovercraft once all of the fans are running.

And finally, the fridge is out of beer, and so the shop is now closed until I make a beer run.

(05/30/2012) 72' Chevy is moving again

Flash and I finally finished up the transmission on the '72 Chevy.  It's mobile again, but not without some complications.  Currently it only has low gear and won't shift into a higher gear.  Not good, but at least it's mobile again.

Mike's Mower

Mike came over the other day and wanted some graphics for his racing mower.  Here's how it turned out.

(03-06-2012) Transmission time

Jody came over and gave me a hand removing the transmission from the truck. It has been a long time since either of us had taken out an automatic and it took a bit of re-learning, but in the end the transmission came out, maybe a bit more quickly than we wanted, but at least it's out.

(03-04-2012) '72 moves into the shop

The '72 Chevy made it's way into the shop this weekend in preparation for a new transmission.

(02-22-2012) Tigershark

I have had the idea to put the P-40 Warhawk Tiger-shark jaws on my mower for quite a while. Last night the weather was nice and I decided it was time to give it a try.

(11-01-2011) Don't growl at me!!

The last few weeks Blondie, my 2001 VW GTI, has been growling. The growling was coming from the back of the car. First, I checked to see if the rear wheel bearings were the problem - jacked the car up and shook and rolled and put pressure on the wheels, but they seemed smooth and fine. Next I thought maybe the rear tires were the problem, even though they only had 12K miles on them and they looked fine, so I bought new rear tires. The new tires seemed to help, but within a day the growl was back as loud as ever.

Finally, on Tuesday, Flash and I installed new rear wheel bearings and my car is now quiet again. It's so nice to be able to hear the stereo again. :)

(07-07-2011) Turbo installed. Blondie Lives!

Took Blondie out for a trip to Berryville and so far she's doing well with the new turbo installed. It wasn't a fun job, but I have a much better knowledge of the turbo and the plumbing, and every little tiny vacuum hose on the entire car. It was a good thing to learn, but it wasn't a convenient time to learn it.

I haven't been able to tell any difference in performance, but I also have been treating the car gingerly and letting the turbo break-in. Maybe after I've driven it for a few days and I feel comfortable with the new turbo I'll give it a try.

I'm keeping a keen eye out for any leaks, but so far it looks good. I may have an oil leak, but that also may be coming from the oil drain plug on the pan. It's too soon to tell.

Also, I have to say a big "THANK YOU!" to Jody and Flash for helping me get this done. I wouldn't have been able to get it done alone. There were just too many jobs that needed an extra set of hands (or an extra set of eyes, or an extra brain {thanks Shannon}, or just someone to stop and have a beer with until you can come up with a better plan on how to do the job). The job wasn't fun (mainly because I was stressed about not having a car), but working in the shop with Jody and Flash was.

(06-26-11) Blondie goes down...

Blondie's turbo went out on 6-26-11. Actually, it appears to be a bad diverter valve, but after 250K miles it's probably time for a new turbo anyway. Bought a new turbo from ECS, but it didn't quite fit - the air intake was a different size, so I had to make another order on 07-01-11 for a new air intake. According to the guys at ECS, the turbo (K03 sport, instead of the normal K03) along with a silicon air intake could give Blondie up to an extra 65HP (although the software probably will not let it do quite that much). I didn't want more horsepower, I just wanted my car to run again. Oh well... Anyway, on 07-05-11 the air intake should arrive and hopefully Blondie will be back on the road. I miss you, Blondie.